Objective: To investigate the expression and prognostic value of vacuole membrane protein 1 (VMP1) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods: The clinical data and survival status of 78 NSCLC patients were collected. Their paraffin-embedded tissues were detected immunohistochemically with a custom-made rabbit anti-human VMP1 polyclonal antibody. And the clinical significance of VMP1 expression and its relationship with the overall survival rate were analyzed statistically.
Results: The positive expression of VMP1 could only be observed in cytoplasm of cancer cells. Among 78 patients, 40 (51.3%) patients were stained VMP1-positive. The positive rate of VMP1 had a correlation with clinical stage (χ(2) = 6.829, P < 0.05), but not with gender, age, pathological type, gross classification and differentiation grade (P > 0.05). The overall 1-and 3-year survival rate was 94.9% and 66.3% respectively. The overall estimated survival time was 37.2 months (95%CI: 33.7 - 40.8). The expression of VMP1 had significant influence on the survival rate (χ(2) = 6.192, P < 0.05). The VMP1-positive patients lived shorter with an estimated survival time of 29.0 months (95%CI: 25.0 - 33.0). VMP1 expression and clinical stage were independent risk factors of influencing the survival rate.
Conclusion: The detection of VMP1 in resected NSCLC tumor tissues may be helpful for prognostic prediction. NSCLC patients with VMP1-positive or late clinical stage have a worse prognosis.